BCS includes Illini in Rose Bowl battle with USC

Mapquest measures the distance between Memorial Stadium and the Rose Bowl at 1,999 miles, but it seemed more like a million during the previous five seasons in Champaign.

But after authoring one of the finest 12-month turnarounds in modern college football annals, Illinois gets to ring in the New Year in Pasadena, Calif., for the first time in 24 years.

After edging up to No. 13 in the Bowl Championship Series standings unveiled Sunday night, the Fighting Illini (9-3) received an at-large bid to face perennial BCS heavy Southern California (10-2) in the 94th Rose Bowl.

While this marks the Trojans' record sixth-consecutive BCS appearance -- including their third Rose Bowl in a row -- Illinois suffered through an arduous 15-45 stretch until this season unfolded.

"Honestly, I don't think anyone would have ever imagined this coming from four or five years ago," said Illinois sophomore quarterback Juice Williams, clutching a rose in his hands. "Or even this year."

With four weeks left in its regular season, Illinois stood at No. 42 in the BCS rankings and needed to run the table just to have a mathematical chance at a BCS bowl.

"You look at the schedule," said coach Ron Zook on Oct. 21, the day after Illinois' 27-17 home loss to Michigan. "We could conceivably finish out 9-3. Or we could finish out 5-7, too.

"There's still a lot of ball to be played, and I think we can still do some things that, at the end of the year, we can all be happy with."

When Zook showed up at the team meeting in the players' lounge late Sunday afternoon carrying a rose in his hand, that signified Illinois earned the happiest finish possible.

"Everyone was like, 'What's he doing?' " said senior all-American middle linebacker J Leman. "Then we all started celebrating a little bit."

Illinois capitalized on the Big Ten's 60-year relationship with the Rose Bowl to secure the school's fifth trip to Pasadena.

Once Big Ten champion Ohio State finished No. 1 in the final BCS rankings, Rose Bowl officials had six choices to fill the void: No. 6 Missouri, No. 8 Kansas, No. 9 West Virginia, No. 10 Hawaii, No. 11 Arizona State and Illinois.

While some might wonder why the Illini won that derby, seeing as how they were the lowest-ranked and the lone 3-loss team, Leman wondered why anyone might question it.

"The Big 10/Pac-10, that's how it's supposed to be," he said. "I think this Illinois team did some arm-twisting with our late-season push and beating the No. 1 team in the country. That's pretty hard to ignore."

But with this prize comes a heavyweight challenge.

Southern California owns five consecutive top-4 finishes in the Associated Press poll.

If not for a big stack of injuries at midseason, when the Trojans were shocked by Stanford and edged at Oregon, they'd likely be on that path again. Southern California capped a four-game winning streak with Saturday's 24-7 whupping of UCLA.

"As soon as we got well, we came back roaring and had a great finish," Trojans coach Pete Carroll said on ESPN. "The defense is really, really playing well, and we're really balanced out well offensively. We've got a really good football team right now."

Illinois' fifth-ranked rushing offense (266.2 yards per game) figures to be tested by the Trojans' speed-oriented defense.

The Trojans boast the nation's No. 4 rushing defense (79.2 yards per game) as well as the No. 2 total defense (258.8 ypg).

Then again, Ohio State owned the nation's stingiest defense for points and yards before the Illini knocked off the top-ranked Buckeyes 28-21 on Nov. 10.

Maybe that's a sign Pasadena is where the Illini are meant to be, even if the players and the head coach still seemed a little stunned several hours after learning their destination.

Athletic director Ron Guenther, wearing a big smile, visited Zook in his office Sunday afternoon and teased his coach briefly before delivering the news.

"When Coach Guenther walked out, I kind of sat down and I was in my office by myself," Zook said. "I took a little breath and I was like, 'Is this real?'

"But we'll all come to grips with it and 'go, man, go.' "